Religion Dispatches
…system is designed for unequal treatment of unbelievers. The constitution officially recognizes the religions of Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism, and stipulates that every citizen must believe in a supreme being. Desecrating Secularism As the Indonesian activist Karl Karnadi points out, the persecution of Alexander Aan comes in the context of broader trends of “increasing religious intolerance in Indonesia…
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…the wave of the future. The nuns embody it since they are lay people, not official representatives of a church, and are more than willing to work in effective coalitions. Finally, the message is clear. As the nuns chant it, “reasonable revenue for responsible programs,” the message of the Faithful Budget Campaign, makes a good deal of sense. “Question Austerity” is another of their mantras. Anyone who works in social change realizes that it takes…
Read More…a better culture or advanced culture,” said Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian official. In Haaretz, Barak Ravid writes: [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu embraced Romney as no Israeli prime minister has ever before embraced a candidate running against an incumbent U.S. president: Aside from their working meeting in the morning, Netanyahu also hosted Romney and his wife and sons for dinner at his official residence. Romney’s entire visit to…
Read More…lities, the rulers of the day focused on persecuting Sikhs such that their numbers dwindled into the low thousands. The regime literally put prices on the heads of Sikhs, offering to pay citizens who helped wipe out the whole community. In fact, Sikhs remember two particular periods in the 18th century as “The Lesser Holocaust” and “The Greater Holocaust.” According to Sikh historians, the state issued an official declaration in 1739 that the enti…
Read More…past on U.S. and British religious conservatives’ efforts to stop Jamaican officials from repealing the country’s colonial era “buggery” law. This week, a joint select committee of the Jamaican Parliament began an official review of the Sexual Offences Act, a 2009 law that further criminalized same-sex relations. In a June interview, Jamaican LGBT rights lawyer Maurice Tomlinson had accused Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller of a “blatant betray…
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…law enforcement authority stresses, each of these men is already listed on official public church websites elsewhere and is deemed “credibly” accused by official church prelates and panels. A distraught Margaret was convinced that much of the horror could have long ago been prevented—or at the very least exposed. She quickly summarized a long-ago and now largely forgotten scandal that took place in Belleville, Illinois, where she lives—a scandal i…
Read More…rge raised the prospect of a future where “those who do not conform to the official religion” of approval of “all types of sexual relationships” that were once considered sinful will be driven from public life: It means that those who choose to live by the Catholic faith will not be welcomed as political candidates to national office, will not sit on editorial boards of major newspapers, will not be at home on most university faculties, will not h…
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…nsion of the insistence on one particular theological point of view as the official, governmental theological point of view, which is totally inappropriate,” said Austin Rabbi Alan Freedman, one of the panelists. That “official theology” has long been evident at the highest reaches of Texas state government. Abbott, a Roman Catholic with Christian nationalist leanings, has made no secret of his opposition to abortion. At a 2016 anti-abortion gathe…
Read More…es one view of what is offensive over another and itself sends a signal of official disapproval of Phillips’ religious beliefs.” As Justice Kagan’s concurrence explains, however, there is a clear distinction between refusal to sell a particular product (a cake with an anti-gay message) and refusal to sell a product to a particular customer (a wedding cake to a same-sex couple). Of course, the Court didn’t seem so concerned with clearly biased gove…
Read More…g him from celebrating mass, travelling, or representing the church in any official capacity. But nobody seems to have known about it, and multiple people report having seen McCarrick presiding over masses and signing “Happy Birthday” to Pope Benedict in Rome around the same time. Most of Viganò’s evidence comes down to memos he says were undelivered or went unread, private conversations that can’t be documented, or actions taken by people who are…
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